Music
2015: No.28= - £128m
2014: No.31= - £100m

It’s been another busy year for legendary Brummie rocker Ozzy Osbourne. The conclusion of a successful Black Sabbath tour which culminated in a hometown Christmas gig added nearly £45 million to the Black Sabbath coffers. And they picked up a Grammy into the bargain.

And that came immediately after a reunion album that raced to No 1 in more than 50 countries. Plus Ozzy’s best-of solo album, Memoirs of a Madman was released in October.

There’s even an ongoing petition and Twitter and Facebook campaign to secure a knighthood for the 66-year-old rocker, launched by a passionate Australian Black Sabbath fan from Sydney. To date the petition has nearly 25,000 signatures.

Three of the original members of the band – Ozzy, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler reformed for their first new album in 33 years, named 13, which achieved global success, becoming their first chart-topper since their Paranoid album 44 years earlier. The album topped the charts in the UK, the USA, Canada, the Far East and Europe.

The band followed up their triumphal album with a tour that took in Australia, New Zealand and a string of arena concerts around Europe before returning to the UK to play London’s O2 Arena, Belfast, Sheffield, Manchester and the LG Arena.

The original line-up last reunited in 1997 to headline the Ozzfest festival, and released the live album Reunion, recorded at the NEC in 1998. That project came to an end when Ozzy resumed his solo career.

In April 2012 Ozzy became a granddad for the fifth time. His son Jack and his actress wife Lisa Stelly gave him grand-daughter, Pearl. It was Ozzy’s wife Sharon’s first grandchild. Jack and Lisa married in October 2012 in Hawaii, shortly after he revealed he was suffering from multiple sclerosis.

He became a celebrity dog-owner in the summer when the family was joined by three Pomeranian puppies.

Ozzy’s company, Monowise, has a turnover of nearly £5 million and is doing nicely, boosted by his touring and albums.

His phenomenal musical success is a long way from Ozzy’s childhood in Lodge Road, Aston where John Michael Osbourne was born into a poverty-stricken family with six children. Bullied at school and suffering learning difficulties, he turned his back on crime and found refuge in music.

His leap from rock star to celebrity came in 2002 when he became the unlikely star of an MTV reality TV series The Osbournes. The series, based on the unconventional domestic life of Ozzy and his family, ran for three years and became one of MTV’s greatest hits.

He lives on a vast Buckinghamshire estate and has homes in Beverly Hills and Malibu, but Ozzy remains Brum’s favourite rocker.